1:30 – 2:30 pm
Copyright and Rights Management at Universities and Institutions
Moderated by Betsy Weissbrod, Presenters: Brittany Bennett, Eo Trueblood, Jennifer Fairman, Wes Price
According to the 2018 AMI Pulse of the Profession Survey, over 50% of respondents indicate a university or a hospital/medical institution employs them. While most of these positions are work-for-hire, meaning the employer owns the intellectual property (IP) rights of content created by employees, questions often arise regarding how IP is managed by those creating the works (employed medical illustrators). Do these organizations register and retain their copyrights? Do they formally license work (internally and externally) and manage beyond the first publication? Who should medical illustrators contact for information about IP rights management at their institution? We recognize that every organization will have varying organizational structures and legal policies in place. However, medical illustrators can benefit their organizations by being well informed about copyright and leveraging those rights. This talk will provide introductory IP information, examples of how some professional medical illustrators work with their institutions to manage IP, and how medical illustrators may begin conversations about managing IP by building artists’ rights allies within their organization.
Session Takeaways:
- After attending, the attendees should be able to identify which department(s) they can contact to begin conversations about IP rights to work they create.
- Attendees should be able to evaluate and adapt concepts provided to their department’s business model or institutional workflow.
- Attendees should be able to convey the importance of retaining, managing, and leveraging IP rights to benefit their organization.
Betsy Weissbrod
Senior Medical Illustrator, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Uniformed Services University’s Department of Surgery & Simulation Center
About the Moderator:
Elizabeth “Betsy” Weissbrod is a Senior Medical Illustrator for the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, supporting the Uniformed Services University’s Department of Surgery and Simulation Center. There she creates multimedia content for military medical education and training. This includes, but is not limited to traditional illustration, digital 2D artwork, 2D animation, 3D modeling and animation, medical moulage, 3D printing, mold making and casting, and prototyping and fabricating medical simulators and task trainers. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Art as Applied to Medicine. In 2010, she founded Weissbrod Studios. Then in 2012, she completed her service as a multi-media illustrator in the United States Army Reserves and became a Certified Medical Illustrator. She currently serves as the Past-Chair for the AMI Board of Governors, and is a member of the Artists’ Rights and Professional Guidelines Committees. In addition to art, she looks for ways to serve those around her through international and local community volunteer opportunities.
About the Presenters:
Brittany Bennett
Medical Illustrator & 3D Specialist, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Brittany Bennett is a medical illustrator at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where half her week is in Stream Studios servicing the hospital network at large, and in the other half of the week she runs RIVER: a medical illustration service just for the Radiology Department, and collaborates with the CHAMP 3D printing Lab. Brittany works with medical professionals at CHOP to produce patient education materials, figures for scientific literature, illustrated surgical training guides, 3D printed anatomical models, and more. Since 2020, she’s been teaching virtual animal drawing to the kids of CHOP staff. Originally a figurative charcoal artist and oil-painter, she earned a BFA in 2016 through a dual degree program at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where she majored in Fine Art and minored in Biology. She earned her Master of Arts in Medical and Biological Illustration from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2019.
Eo Trueblood
Co-founder and Lead Illustrator, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Stream Studios
Eo Trueblood is the co-founder and lead illustrator of Stream Studios, the medical illustration and innovation studio at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). For nearly a decade Eo has worked to develop a dynamic studio model that meets the multidimensional and ever evolving needs of CHOP and its community. In collaboration with his colleague Brittany Bennett, the studio has grown to offer 2D and 3D solutions to meet their client’s needs including animation, additive manufacturing, and the development of digital and physical educational materials. Outside of the studio, Eo has developed the Drawing for Visual Communication course which he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine to third and fourth year medical students.
Jennifer Fairman
Associate Professor & Assistant Director of Production Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Founder and Principal, Fairman Studios, LLC
Jennifer “Jeni” Fairman is an Associate Professor and is the Assistant Director of Production for the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Jeni brings over 20 years of experience in science, education, business policy, research, communication and design to be an effective visual problem-solver for her colleagues throughout the Hopkins community, and a dedicated educator and advisor to her students. Jeni is a professional member and served on the Board of Governors of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) and has served for 4 terms as a Board Member of the Vesalius Trust (VT). She is currently an advisor to the VT and the Walter Spohn Trust. Her contributions are highly recognized by the AMI, Illustrators Club of DC, The National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Women’s Committee, James Smithson Society, and the VT. Jeni is the 1999 recipient of the Trust’s prestigious honor, the Inez Demonet Award. She is also a Fellow of the AMI and received its Outstanding Achievement Award.
Wes Price
Director, Center for BioMedical Visualization, St. George's University, Grenada
Wes Price is a Board Certified Medical Illustrator with over 25 years professional experience in science visualization and education. He enjoys experimenting with 3D illustration techniques using digital sculpting, 3D scanning, 3D printing and virtual reality. In the 1990’s, Wes Price earned a BFA in Scientific Illustration from the University of Georgia, and then his MSc in Medical Illustration from Augusta University. Wes has thrived in a variety of roles as a medical illustrator, animator and video game artist across the United States and was a member of the Interactive Division of Engineering Animation, Inc., a Fortune 500 Company that made its mark in Ames, Iowa. More recently, he immigrated to the island of Grenada to serve as faculty in the Anatomical Sciences Department at St. George’s University School of Medicine. Currently he is the Director of the Center for BioMedical Visualization at SGU, which is a dynamic faculty collective within the Department of Anatomical Sciences whose mission is to pioneer the fields of medical illustration and instructional design for both education and research.